From a Kenyan village to Israel and back: One woman's big science plans

The author and Kenneth Kiplang'at Chepkwony leader/mentor for AICAT Kenyan students. 

In Israel's south, at AICAT: The Arava International Center for Agricultural Training, students from around the world learn advanced agricultural practices they then take back to their home countries. Here's one student's inspiring story.

By Irene Chemtai Phungoh

My story starts in a pastoralist community in Kenya's arid West Pokot County where food, water, and energy insecurity have prevailed for a long time.
 
Sometime in the year 2006, the primary school I attended benefited from a water project courtesy of UNICEF and Danish pump manufacturer Grundfos. A solar-powered borehole drilled at the school brought relief to my school and the entire village.
 
Nearby sat a water collection tank, which would then become the heart of the school. At this point, we became partially relieved of the routine daily six-mile "water-searching missions."

One day on a hot weekend afternoon, as I washed clothes at the school tank, I was startled by the sight of large amounts of water falling from above. To some people, this would be just a tank’s overflow, but I was definitely challenged to do something about the excess precious liquid that was simply wasting away.

Multicultural agriculture school in Israel plants seeds of hope, diplomacy

The author, Ron, right, with his new friend Mohammad, at AICAT.

By Ron Werner

What would you say if you walked into a classroom in a remotely populated region of southern Israel to find the room filled with students from Africa and Southeast Asia learning and loving Israel? The majority of the students come from countries that don't have diplomatic relations with Israel; so, if you hadn't seen it with your own eyes, you might not have believed it. This is hope, this is the future. This is AICAT: The Arava International Center for Agricultural Training.  

A few weeks ago I visited AICAT, and it was easily one of the most amazing places I have ever seen.

My Arava Story: Israel gives Nigerian farmer tools to fight food crisis

We're focusing on stories from the beautiful Arava, Israel's southern desert. Residents of the Central Arava face many challenges, including the harsh climate, large distance between communities, and lack of accessibility to resources available in urban centers. JNF has partnered with the Central Arava Regional Council as part of our Blueprint Negev campaign to make the Negev habitable to the next generation of Israel's residents. 

Here, reflections from a pupil at the Arava International Center for Agriculture and Training (AICAT), where students from around the world learn advanced agricultural practices they then take back to their home countries.   

By Endurance P. Ojo

My interest in agriculture isn't necessarily a story of passion since childhood. Rather, it stems from my experience with my father on his farm in Nigeria and my continuous study in a quest to increase crop productivity there. Also, I look to a Science Daily article published in April 2014 featuring a statement by Professor Fred Davies (a senior adviser to the USAID at that time) on the relationship between agriculture and increasing world population. That article changed my life forever. 

My Arava Story: Myanmar farmer finds career, and love, in the desert

Htawshae Lum Hkawng in his element. He credits his time studying at AICAT in Israel with giving him 
the tools for farming success. 

We're taking time to focus on stories from the beautiful Arava, Israel's southern desert. Residents of the Central Arava face many challenges, including the harsh climate, large distance between communities, and lack of accessibility to resources available in urban centers. JNF has partnered with the Central Arava Regional Council as part of our Blueprint Negev campaign to make the Negev habitable to the next generation of Israel's residents. 

By Htawshae Lum Hkawng

I am from Myanmar. From 2011-2012 I came to Israel and studied in the agriculture diploma program at AICAT (Arava International Center for Agriculture Training). It was a truly amazing experience. I learned how to farm from square one: planting, pruning, feeding, sterilizing, irrigating, and cleaning until harvesting; packaging, cleaning, and maintaining the farm under the greenhouses and net houses. The program's model of combining classroom theory with practical work on the farm has given me the tools I need to go on and become a successful farmer.

My Arava Story: A Kenyan agriculture student's 'extraordinary' new life

We're taking time to focus on the beauty of the Arava, Israel's southern desert. Residents of the Central Arava face many challenges, including the harsh climate, large distance between communities, and lack of accessibility to resources available in urban centers. JNF has partnered with the Central Arava Regional Council as part of our Blueprint Negev campaign to make the Negev habitable to the next generation of Israel's residents. 

Here, a personal narrative from a Kenyan student at the Arava International Center for Agriculture and Training (AICAT). He details the surprises and pleasures of his new life in Israel's south.

By Kenneth Kiplang'at Chepkwony

I recently graduated from the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) in Kenya, and I'm currently pursuing a postgraduate diploma at the Arava International Center for Agriculture and Training. I came to Israel in August 2016 as one of the beneficiaries of an internship program that has seen the admission of 100 Kenyan students at AICAT. The objective is to expose individuals like me to the sophisticated agricultural technologies attached to the Arava. I hail from an agricultural family that relies solely on natural rainfall. Sadly, such traditional approaches have hindered local communities from growing food sufficiently. This inspired me to apply to AICAT. I have a deep desire to apply the knowledge I will amass in the Arava to influence my country folk positively.

On JLIM leadership mission, getting emotional in the Arava desert

Photo courtesy of Jennifer Starrett

JNFuture Arizona board members (from left) Penelope Karp Abad, Andy Becker, Talyah Sands, Jennifer Starrett, and Stephanie Kelman visit Alexander Muss High School in Israel during the JLIM. 

JNFuture Arizona board members are currently in Israel on the Jewish National Fund Leadership Mission in Israel (JLIM), and are sharing their impressions on the blog for the Jewish News, a weekly newspaper serving Greater Phoenix and Northern Arizona. Here, one participant shares some thoughts from the fourth day.

By Stephanie Kelman

I had the understanding after 10 years of involvement in JNF that the Arava was an important project that revolved around agriculture innovation. I had no idea that the Arava desert itself was an example of Zionist pioneering to the greatest extent. About 4,000 pioneers have established themselves in one of the most extreme and difficult environments in the world to show our Jordanian neighbors that we are here and flourishing.

Our JNFuture group was fortunate to learn about the Arava from Noa Zer, resource development director of the Central Arava Regional Council. While I was impressed by the agriculture innovation and spirit of the residents, the Arava International Center for Agricultural Training (AICAT) school astounded me and I was overwhelmed with passion and a true sense of connectivity that I had not yet experienced with a specific JNF project.

A heartfelt thank you to JNF, from Nepalese students who lost their homes

Following JNF's recent Presidents Mission and JNF's generosity toward the rehabilitation of Nepal, the following letter was written to JNF President Jeffrey Levine on behalf of 160 Nepalese students at Arava International Center for Agricultural Training. At AICAT, students from around the world learn advanced agricultural practices cultivated in the Central Arava desert that they can then take back to their home countries. 

Dear Jeffrey,

Thank you so much for the your generous donation to AICAT and we are really so glad that you are helping us too in this critical situation.

We are here 165 students from Nepal learning in AICAT, and in the end of the program almost we all of the students lose our houses. For a second we thought that our dreams to change the agriculture system in our country had broken into pieces. But you have given us the strength to do it more effectively. Thanks for filling the new hope inside us.

Modern miracle #PoweredByJNF: Advanced agricultural know-how farmed to the developing world

Along the Jordanian border, in the Central Arava desert, a modern miracle is taking place. With less than one inch of annual rainfall and multiple other challenges, the Arava farmers have been able to make the impossible possible and make the desert bloom. Roughly 550 farming families of the Central Arava produce 60 percent of Israel’s fresh vegetable exports and 10 percent of its cut-flower imports. The region is a world leader in advanced desert agriculture and a prime example of effective water use. 

But the miracle isn't only benefiting Israel; it's also impacting people in developing countries. Twenty years ago the Arava farmers took it upon themselves to share their  knowledge  and experience with the world. This was the beginning of the Arava International Center for Agriculture Training, or AICAT. Today the program has changed the lives of over 8,000 graduates from Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Nepal, Tibet, Ethiopia, Liberia, Nigeria, and South Sudan. 

JNF brings Israel to Cambodia

Jewish National Fund CEO, Russell Robinson, and CFO, Mitchel Rosenzweig, are on a tour of Asia and the Far East this week on behalf of the Israeli government and the Arava International Trainee Center, or AICAT. Also on the tour are Channi Arnon, director of AICAT, and Eyal Blum, mayor of the Central Arava.  

AICAT is a 20-year-old agricultural training institute in the developing town of Sapir, Israel, where students throughout Asia and the Far East are sent by their home countries to study cutting-edge and often high-tech agricultural techniques.  

Robinson has been enthusiastically reporting from the road; after the jump are some of the exciting accounts of the the group's encounters and stories from Cambodia and of how they are changing the perception of Israel in the minds of the developing world.